Proxy server failover and load clustering

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computer program products, and the like, for providing failover and load clustering features to one or more proxy servers of a content delivery network (CDN). In one embodiment, one or more proxy servers may announce a virtual host internet protocol (IP) and, to provide a failover feature, two or more of the proxy servers may also announce a more generic virtual network IP address that includes a broader range of IP addresses associated with the virtual network IP address. In another embodiment, each of the proxy servers in communication with the router may announce a generic IP network address to the router. In response to receiving a request for content from an end user of the CDN, the router may select a proxy server and load balance the received requests among the proxy servers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/941,576 entitled “CONTENT DELIVERYNETWORK ARCHITECTURE WITH EDGE PROXY”, filed on Feb. 19, 2014 and toU.S. Provisional Application No. 62/110,119 entitled “PROXY SERVERFAILOVER AND LOAD CLUSTERING”, filed on Jan. 30, 2015, both of which areincorporated by reference in their entirety herein.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems andmethods for implementing a telecommunications network, and morespecifically for providing failover and load clustering features to oneor more proxy servers of a content delivery network.

BACKGROUND

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are increasingly used to distributecontent, such as videos, multimedia, images, audio files, documents,software, and other electronic resources, to end users on behalf of oneor more content providers. Using a CDN allows the content providers toincrease the speed and reliability of content delivery without deployingadditional infrastructure. Moreover, a CDN allows for the distributionof the content through one or more existing networks without the need tostore the content within the existing networks.

Typically, a CDN includes several content servers from which the contentcan be supplied to a requesting end user. In one example, these contentservers may be accessed through a telecommunications network to whichthe end user is in communication. The network may include any number ofcomponents to facilitate the connection of the end user to the requestedcontent, such as routers and proxy servers. However, in some instances,one or more of the components of the network may suffer a failure or beotherwise unable to provide the content to the end user. For example,one or more of the components may crash and cease operation until thecomponent is restarted or a replacement component is included in thenetwork. In another example, one or more of the components may beoverwhelmed with traffic from the network such that one or more endusers may no longer connect to the component for routing andtransmission of the requested content. In such circumstances,availability of content from the CDN may be temporarily compromisedthrough the network to the end user.

It is with these and other issues in mind that various aspects of thepresent disclosure were developed.

SUMMARY

One implementation of the present disclosure may take the form of methodfor operating a content delivery network. The method may include theoperations of receiving a network Internet Protocol (IP) addressannouncement at a router from each of a plurality of proxy servers of atelecommunications network, the plurality of proxy servers incommunication with a storage device configured to store a content fileof the content delivery network (CDN) and wherein the network IP addressfrom each of the plurality of proxy servers comprises a first range ofIP addresses, receiving a request for the content file from an end userdevice in communication with the CDN, the request comprising at least adestination IP address for the content file, selecting a first proxyserver of the plurality of proxy servers to provide the requestedcontent file to the end user device, and transmitting the request forthe content file to the first proxy server.

Another implementation of the present disclosure may take the form of acontent delivery network. The content delivery network may comprise arouter in communication with the content delivery network (CDN) andconfigured to receive a first request comprising at least a destinationIP address for a content file from an end user device in communicationwith the CDN and a plurality of proxy servers in communication with therouter and a storage device configured to store the content file of theCDN. Further, the router may further be configured to receive a networkInternet Protocol (IP) address announcement comprising a first range ofIP addresses from each of the plurality of proxy servers, select a firstproxy server of the plurality of proxy servers to provide the requestedcontent file to the end user device based at least on the network IPaddress, and transmit the first request for the content file to thefirst proxy server

Yet another implementation of the present disclosure may take the formof method for providing failover protection in a telecommunicationsnetwork. The method may include the operations of receiving a networkInternet Protocol (IP) address announcement at a router from at leasttwo proxy servers of the telecommunications network, the at least twoproxy servers in communication with a storage device configured to storea content file of a content delivery network (CDN) and wherein thenetwork IP address from each of the at least two proxy servers comprisesa first range of IP addresses and receiving a host IP addressannouncement at the router from a first proxy server of the at least twoproxy servers, the host IP address comprising a second range of IPaddresses smaller than the first range of IP addresses. In addition, themethod may include the operations of receiving an indication of afailure of the first proxy server of the at least two proxy servers,removing the host IP address from a routing table based at least on thereceived indication of the failure of the first proxy server, receivinga request for the content file from an end user device in communicationwith the CDN, selecting a second of the at least two proxy server of theplurality of proxy servers to provide the requested content file to theend user device, and transmitting the request for the content file tothe second proxy server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example network environment for distributing content over acontent delivery network (CDN).

FIG. 2 is an example network environment for routing a request forcontent from a CDN a proxy server of the network.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a CDN to utilize aBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP) announcement to provide a failover featureto a router of a network.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a CDN to utilize aBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP) announcement to provide a load balancingbetween several proxy servers of a network.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a computing system whichmay be used in implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computerprogram products, and the like, for providing failover and loadclustering features to one or more proxy servers of a content deliverynetwork (CDN). In one embodiment, the CDN may include a plurality ofproxy servers in communication with a router through which the requestsfor content from one or more of the proxy servers may be received. Oneor more of the proxy servers may announce a virtual host internetprotocol (IP) address that identifies the proxy server as a devicethrough which a particular content of the CDN is available. The virtualIP addresses may be announce through a border gateway protocol (BGP)session with the router. The virtual host IP address may be a specificIP address for the content or a host IP route address when the contentis retrieved from a storage device. To provide a failover feature to theplurality of proxy servers in communication with the router, two or moreof the proxy servers (including the proxy server that provides thevirtual host IP address or host IP route) may also announce a moregeneric virtual network IP address that includes a broader range of IPaddresses associated with the virtual network IP address. Thus, if theproxy server that announces the host IP address fails or is otherwiseinoperable, the router may route requests for content to one of theother proxy servers that have announced the virtual network IP address.In this manner, by announcing a specific IP address from one proxyserver and a generic IP address from another proxy server, one or moreof the proxy servers may receive requests for content in thecircumstance when a particular proxy server fails.

In another embodiment, each of the proxy servers in communication withthe router may announce a generic IP network address to the router. Inresponse to receiving a request for content from an end user of the CDN,the router may select a proxy server through which the content isprovided to the end user. In one example, the router may calculate ahash value from information contained in the request for content. Basedon the hash value, the router selects one of the proxy servers toprovide the content. Further, by spreading the selection of a proxyserver among the possible hash values, the router may load balancerequests for content among the proxy servers. In this manner, byannouncing a generic IP network address from each or some of theavailable proxy servers, the router may provide a load balance featureamong the available proxy servers from which a particular content fromthe CDN is available.

FIG. 1 is an example network environment 100 for distributing content toone or more users. In one implementation, a CDN 102 is communicablycoupled to one or more access networks 106. In general, the CDN 102comprises one or more content servers (discussed in more detail below)and/or proxy servers configured to provide content upon a request and anunderlying IP network through which the request is received and thecontent is provided. The underlying IP network associated with the CDNservers may be of the form of any type IP-based communication networkconfigured to transmit and receive communications through the networkand may include any number and types of telecommunications components.In this manner, CDN proxy servers may be added to an existing IP-basedcommunication network such that the CDN proxy servers receive a requestfor content, retrieve the content from a content provider network 116,and provide the content to the requesting device through the supportingIP network. For simplicity, the use of the term “CDN” throughout thisdisclosure refers to the combination of the one or more content serversand the underlying IP network for processing and transmittingcommunications, unless otherwise noted.

In one embodiment, the access network 106 may be under the control of oroperated/maintained by one or more entities, such as, for example, oneor more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that provide access to the CDN102. Thus, for example, the access network 106 may provide Internetaccess to a user device 104. In addition, the access network 106 mayinclude several connections to the IP network of the CDN 102. Forexample, access network 106 includes access point 120. Also, the userdevice 104 may be connected to any number of access networks 106 suchthat access to the CDN 102 may occur through another access network. Ingeneral, access to a CDN 102 (or underlying IP network associated withthe CDN) may occur through any number of ingress ports to the CDNthrough any number of access networks.

The CDN 102 is capable of providing content to a user device 104, whichis generally any form of computing device, such as a personal computer,mobile device, tablet (e.g., iPad), or the like. Content may include,without limitation, videos, multimedia, images, audio files, text,documents, software, and other electronic resources. The user device 104is configured to request, receive, process, and present content. In oneimplementation, the user device 104 includes an Internet browserapplication with which a link (e.g., a hyperlink) to a content item maybe selected or otherwise entered, causing a request to be sent to adirectory server 110 in the CDN 102.

The request for content may be received at a router 110 of the CDN. Inone particular embodiment, the request is transmitted through severalcomponents of the IP network before being received at the router. Inaddition, the CDN 102 may include a directory server configured torespond to the request by providing a network address (e.g., an IPaddress within an IP network) where the content associated with theselected link can be obtained. The directory server resolves the linkname (e.g., URL or other identifier) to an associated network addressfrom which the user device 104 can retrieve the content.

In one implementation, the CDN 102 includes one or more edge servers112, 114 (also sometimes referred to as an “edge server”), which maycache content from another server to make it available in a moregeographically or logically proximate location to the router 110 and/oruser device 104. The proxy servers 112, 114 may reduce network loads,free capacity, lower delivery costs, and/or reduce content downloadtime. The proxy servers 112, 114 are configured to provide requestedcontent to a requestor, which may be the user device 104 or anintermediate device, for example, in the access network 106. In oneimplementation, the one or more of the proxy servers 112, 114 providethe requested content that is locally stored in cache. In anotherimplementation, the proxy servers 112, 114 retrieve the requestedcontent from another source, such as a media access server (MAS) (e.g.,a content distribution server or a content origin server 116 of acontent provider network 118). The content is then served to the userdevice 104 in response to the requests.

FIG. 2 is an example network environment for routing a request forcontent from a CDN a proxy server of the network. In particular, FIG. 2illustrates one embodiment of the router 110 and proxy servers 112, 114from FIG. 1. Thus, the network 200 of FIG. 2 includes a router 202 incommunication with a plurality of proxy servers 204-212. Although notshown in FIG. 2, it should be appreciated that the components discussedabove and shown in FIG. 1, as well as additional networking andcomputing components, may be in connected to or otherwise incommunication with the components of the network 200. In particular, therouter 202 may be connected with or part of an IP network to receiverequests for content from an end user connected to the network. Also,one or more of the proxy servers 204-212 may be connected to orotherwise in communication with a content provider network or contentstorage device to access the content in response to receiving a request.As explained above, the proxy servers 204-212 may also store somecontent that is utilized often by the network. In this manner, the proxyservers 204-212 may act as content storage devices for the CDN and/or asrouter devices to access the content stored on a separate contentstorage device.

As shown, the proxy servers 204-212 are in communication with the router202. In one particular example, the proxy servers 204-212 include a 20Gigabyte connection or connections with the router 202. In anotherexample, the proxy servers 204-212 include a 40 Gigabyte connection orconnections with the router 202. In general, any type of networkconnection between the router 202 and the proxy servers 204-212 may bepresent. Further, the proxy servers 204-212 may not be directlyconnected to the router 202, but instead may be in communication througha network and/or any number of network devices. As explained in moredetail below, the router 202 is configured to receive packets from atelecommunications network and, based at least on a routing protocol andan address included in one or more of the received packets, route thepackets to one or more of the proxy servers 204-212. In one particularexample, packets include a request for content from a CDN.

The proxy servers 204-212 are generally configured to obtain and providethe content of the CDN, either through storing some of the contentrequested through the CDN and/or further transmitting the receivedpackets to a storage device from which the content is obtained. As such,when a request for content is received from the end user through theCDN, the router 202 analyzes an address associated with the request anddetermines which proxy server 204-212 obtains the content. The router202 then transmits the request on to the selected proxy server 204-212.Upon receiving the request from the router 202, the proxy server 204-212either provides the requested content or obtains the requested contentfrom a storage device and then provides the content. In either event,any proxy server 204-212 may be configured to provide any content from astorage device such that the cluster of proxy servers is scalable.

Some disruption of service may occur in providing the requested contentwhen a proxy server 204-212 is unable to obtain and provide the content.For example, one or more of the proxy servers 204-212 may crash or beotherwise inoperable to provide content for some reason. In such a case,end users connected to or receiving content from the failed proxyservers 204-212 may have their session interrupted or may not be able toaccess content from the proxy servers. In another example, one or moreof the proxy servers 204-212 may be overwhelmed with requests forcontent, such as during a denial of service attack on the server. If toomany end users request content from the proxy server, one or more of theend users may not be able to access or otherwise communicate with theproxy server. When a proxy server 204-212 crashes or becomesunavailable, it may take some time before end users connected to thefailed proxy server is transferred to another proxy server. As should beappreciated, such circumstances may be undesirable for an operator ofthe CDN as access to some content hosted by the CDN may be unavailableto one or more users of the network.

The present disclosure describes some methods to address the potentialfailure of one or more proxy server 204-212 in the CDN. In particular,FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating one method for a CDN to utilize aBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP) announcement to provide a failover featureto a router of a network in communication with a plurality of proxyservers. In general, the operations of the method of FIG. 3 may beperformed by one or more routers of the CDN, but may be performed byanother number and type of components of the telecommunications network.The operations of the method are described below with reference to thenetwork 200 of FIG. 2. However, it should be appreciated that theoperations may be performed by any network configuration discussedherein or otherwise known.

Beginning in operation 302, the router 202 receives a BGP announcementmessage from one proxy server 204-212 in communication with the routerof a host Internet Protocol (IP) address that indicates that aparticular content of the CDN may be located at the announcing proxyserver. In general, the router 202 and the proxy server (in thisexample, proxy server 204) may enter a BGP session in which the proxyserver announces one or more virtual IP addresses for content availablefrom the proxy server. The announced virtual IP addresses may be storedby the router 202 for routing of requests for content. In particular,the router 202 may receive a request for content available from one ormore of the proxy servers 204-212. Based on information stored in theheader of the request, the router 202 determines where the requestshould be routed. In particular, the router 202 compares the informationin the header of the request to a stored routing table to determine howthe request is routed. In one embodiment, the information in the routingtable is populated through BGP announcements from the proxy servers204-212 (as well as other components within the network).

The host virtual IP address announced by the proxy server 204 may be anytype of IP address associated with content available through the CDN. Inone particular example, however, the virtual IP address may include aClassless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) type of IP address. In general,CIDR notation in an IP address allows for the announcement of a range ofIP addresses. CIDR notation for an IP address includes a typical IPaddress with a slash and a decimal number appended to the end of theaddress. The slash and decimal number appended to the IP address allowsfor aggregation of contiguous addresses. Thus, sixteen contiguous /24networks can be aggregated as a single /20 route if the first 20 bits ofthe IP addresses match. This allows for a reduction in the number ofroutes that need be announced through the BGP session. Also, as shouldbe appreciated, a higher decimal value after the slash character in theIP address indicates a smaller range of IP addresses associated with thecomponent, such that an IP address ending with /32 is more specific thanan IP address ending with /25.

As mentioned above, a proxy server 204 may announce a virtual IP addressto the router 202 for the availability of content through the proxyserver. In one example, the virtual IP address announced by the proxyserver 204 may be a specific host IP address for the content. Thespecific host IP address may be used when the content is stored at theproxy server 204. For example, the host IP address may be IP address4.2.2.126. However, the proxy server 204 may also act as a router to astorage device that stores the requested content. As such, the virtualIP address announced by the proxy server 204 may be a host IP route andmay include a CIDR notation for the host IP route. For example, the hostIP route may be the IP address 4.2.2.1/32. The IP host address and/or IPhost route address indicates to the router 202 (and the networkconnected to the router) that the content associated with the IP hostaddress may be located at the proxy server 204. In one embodiment, theIP host address and the IP host route address may be provided by thedirectory server of the CDN and announced during a BGP session with theproxy server 204.

In operation 304, the router receives a virtual network IP addressannouncement from the proxy server 204 from which the host IP address orhost IP route was announced and at least one other proxy server (forexample, proxy server 206) in communication with the router 202. Ingeneral, the virtual network IP address announced by the one or moreproxy servers 204, 206 is less specific than the virtual host IP addressor route. Utilizing the example above, proxy server 204 and proxy server206 may announce a network IP address of 4.2.2.0/25. Thus, because thenetwork IP address includes a CIDR notation of /25 and the host IP routeaddress includes a CIDR notation of /32, the host IP route address ismore specific (as it includes a smaller range of IP addressesencompassed by the CIDR notation). The virtual network IP addressesannounced by the proxy server 204, 206 may be stored in a routing tablefor the router 202.

Although discussed above as including proxy server 204 and proxy server206, it should be appreciated that the network IP address may beannounced from any number of the proxy server 204-212 in communicationwith the router 202. For example, the network IP address may beannounced from proxy server 204, proxy server 208, and proxy server 210.In one particular embodiment, the number of proxy servers 204-212announcing the network IP address is limited to three proxy servers. Inanother example discussed in more detail below, each proxy server204-212 in communication or otherwise assigned to the router 202 mayannounce the same network IP address.

As mentioned above, the router 202 is configured to route a receivedrequest for content to a proxy server based at least on the routingtable stored by the router. In particular, the router 202 may route areceived request to the proxy server 204-212 to which the router has themost specific IP address. For example, although the router 202 has twostored IP addresses for a particular content as discussed above, therouter may route requests for the content to proxy server 204 over proxyserver 206 because the host IP address announced by proxy server 204 ismore specific than the network IP address announced by proxy server 206.As such, all requests for the content associated with the host IPaddress is routed to proxy server 204 when received at the router 202.

However, in some circumstances, proxy server 204 may become unavailableto provide the content. For example, the proxy server 204 may fail orcrash and become inoperable. In such a circumstance, the router 202 mayreceive an indication of the proxy server 204 failure in operation 306.In response, the router 202 may remove the IP addresses in the routingtable of the router associated with the failed proxy server 204 inoperation 308. In other words, because the proxy server 204 isunavailable to provide or obtain content, the router 202 removes thepossibility of routing requests to the proxy server. Continuing theabove example, the router may then remove the host IP address or routeof the proxy server 204.

In operation 310, the router 202 receives a request for content from auser device associated with the CDN. This request is similar to therequest discussed above. However, in this instance, the proxy server 204through which the content may be retrieved has failed. Thus, inoperation 312, the router 202 consults the routing table and routes therequest to the most specific route available associated with thedestination IP address of the request. Because proxy server 206 hasannounced the network IP address, the router 202 may then route therequest to proxy server 206.

Through the operations above, the proxy servers 204-212 provide afailover alternative proxy server to the router 202 to receive requestsand provide content to the CDN. As discussed, proxy server 204 mayhandle requests for the content while operational because of the IP hostaddress announced the proxy server. However, in circumstances whereproxy server 204 fails, requests may be transmitted to proxy server 206based on the network IP address announced by the proxy server 206. Therouting of requests to the failover proxy server 206 may occur fasterthan previous configurations of the network that attempt to findalternative paths to the content when a proxy server fails. Rather,because the less specific network IP address announced by the failoverproxy server 206 is already included in the routing table when thepreferred proxy server 204 fails, the routing of additional requests tothe failover proxy server 206 occurs quickly.

In addition, the failover proxy server 206 may pick up the one or moresessions being handled by the preferred proxy server 204 upon a failure.In general, a content session may include several requests for portionsof the content, such as segments of a video file. Although some of thesegments may be lost or otherwise not provided to the end user upon thefailure of the proxy server 204, any requests for the segments thatarrive at the router 202 after the failure of proxy server 204 areautomatically routed to the failover proxy server 206 based on the lessspecific network IP address announced by the failover proxy server.

Through the above method, a plurality of proxy servers 204-212 mayinclude a failover feature for content available through the proxyservers. However, in some circumstances, the additional requeststransmitted to the failover proxy server 206 may result in the failoverproxy server being overwhelmed with requests such that operation of theproxy server is compromised. As such, a load balancing feature may beincluded in the network 200 configuration that attempts to balance therequests for content received at the router 202 among the proxy servers204-212 in communication with the router. One such configuration of thenetwork 200 to provides a load balancing feature (and in somecircumstance, in addition to the failover feature) is presented below.

In particular, FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a CDN toutilize a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) announcement to provide a loadbalancing between several proxy servers of a network. Similar to themethod of FIG. 3, operations of the method of FIG. 4 may be performed byone or more routers of the CDN, but may be performed by another numberand type of components of the telecommunications network. The operationsof the method are described below with reference to the network 200 ofFIG. 2. However, it should be appreciated that the operations may beperformed by any network configuration discussed herein or otherwiseknown.

Beginning in operation 402, the proxy servers 204-212 in communicationor otherwise associated with the router 202 announce a network IPaddress through a BGP session with the router. The network IP addressannounced by the proxy servers 204-212 may be similar to the network IPaddress discussed above. Therefore, in one example, the network IPaddress may be include a CIDR notation, such as a network IP address of4.2.2.0/25. In general, the network IP address announced by the proxyservers 204-212 may include any form of an IP address that provides anindication of a range of IP addresses of a network. By announcing anetwork IP address that includes a range of IP addresses, the proxyservers 204-212 appear to the router 202 as connections to a network. Asdiscussed in more detail below, the announcement of the network IPaddress from each proxy server 204-212 allows the router 202 to providea request for content to any of the proxy servers based on thedestination IP address included in the request.

In operation 404, the router 202 receives a request for content from auser device associated with the CDN. This request is similar to therequest discussed above. However, as the routing table does not includeone route that is more specific than any other qualifying route, therouter 202 may transmit the request to any of the proxy servers 204-212.To select which proxy server 204-212 of the available proxy servers towhich the request is routed, the router may calculate a hash value inoperation 406. In general, the hash value may be any repeatable valuedetermined from the request to select one of the proxy servers 204-212to route the request. In one particular embodiment, the router 202 mayutilize information in the request header, such as the source address,destination address, source ports, and the like included in the headerof the request to calculate the hash value. By utilizing the informationin the request header, the hash value may be repeatable for a particularcontent retrieving session as such information in the header may notdiffer from request to request within the session. In other words, byutilizing the information in the header that remains the same during thesession, a single proxy server 204-212 is selected to provide all of therequested content, as long as the selected proxy server does not failduring the session.

The calculated hash value may then be utilized to select a proxy server204-212 from the available proxy servers to transmit the request inoperation 408. For example, each proxy server 204-212 that announces thenetwork IP address may be assigned a range of hash values by the router202. Thus, upon the calculation of the hash value, the router 202 maydetermine which proxy server 204-212 is associated with the hash valueand select that proxy server through which the requested content isretrieved. In operation 410, the router 202 may then transmit therequest to the selected proxy server 204-212 for fulfillment of therequest for the content. In this manner, the router 202 may load balancerequests for content from the CDN among the available proxy servers204-212 based at least on the network IP address announced by each ofthe proxy servers.

Through the operations above, any proxy server 204-212 in communicationwith the router 202 that announces the network IP address may fulfillthe request for content from the CDN. Thus, the router 202 may loadbalance the requests among the various proxy servers 204-212 as therequests are received. In addition, by calculating a hash value toselect a proxy server that is the same for an entire content session,each portion of a requested content may be provided by a single proxyserver. Further, the router 202 may provide a failover protection forthe plurality of proxy servers 204-212 available. For example, in thecircumstance where one or more of the proxy servers 204-212 becomeunavailable to provide content, the router 202 may become aware of theunavailable proxy server and adjust the hash value calculationaccordingly. In other words, the router 202 may adjust the hash valuecalculation to return values that indicate one of the remainingavailable proxy servers. Thus, when a request for content is received atthe router 202, the calculation of the hash value may return a value fora remaining available proxy server from which the content is provided.In this manner, the router 202 provides a failover feature to the proxyserver 204-212 selection of the proxy servers should one of the serversfail.

Utilizing a BGP announcement session to announce a specific virtual hostIP address or route and a more generic (or broader to include a largerrange of IP addresses) network IP address, a plurality of proxy servers204-212 may provide a failover feature and/or a load balancing featureto a router 202 in communication with the plurality of proxy servers.Specifically, a virtual network IP address announced from the proxyservers 204-212 may allow the router 202 to select a proxy server toprovide the content to an end user in a balanced manner. In addition,one or more of the proxy servers 204-212 may be identified as apreferred proxy server to provide the content through the proxy serverannouncing a more specific virtual IP host address. As should beappreciated, the methods discussed herein may be performed by anynetworking device or devices to provide a failover and/or load balancingfeature by the number and type of IP addresses announced by the devicesduring a BGP session.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computing deviceor computer system 500 which may be used in implementing the embodimentsof the components of the network disclosed above. For example, thecomputing system 500 of FIG. 5 may be used to implement the router orproxy servers discussed above. The computer system (system) includes oneor more processors 502-506. Processors 502-506 may include one or moreinternal levels of cache (not shown) and a bus controller or businterface unit to direct interaction with the processor bus 512.Processor bus 512, also known as the host bus or the front side bus, maybe used to couple the processors 502-506 with the system interface 514.System interface 514 may be connected to the processor bus 512 tointerface other components of the system 500 with the processor bus 512.For example, system interface 514 may include a memory controller 514for interfacing a main memory 516 with the processor bus 512. The mainmemory 516 typically includes one or more memory cards and a controlcircuit (not shown). System interface 514 may also include aninput/output (I/O) interface 520 to interface one or more I/O bridges orI/O devices with the processor bus 512. One or more I/O controllersand/or I/O devices may be connected with the I/O bus 526, such as I/Ocontroller 528 and I/O device 540, as illustrated.

I/O device 540 may also include an input device (not shown), such as analphanumeric input device, including alphanumeric and other keys forcommunicating information and/or command selections to the processors502-506. Another type of user input device includes cursor control, suchas a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicatingdirection information and command selections to the processors 502-506and for controlling cursor movement on the display device.

System 500 may include a dynamic storage device, referred to as mainmemory 516, or a random access memory (RAM) or other computer-readabledevices coupled to the processor bus 512 for storing information andinstructions to be executed by the processors 502-506. Main memory 516also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediateinformation during execution of instructions by the processors 502-506.System 500 may include a read only memory (ROM) and/or other staticstorage device coupled to the processor bus 512 for storing staticinformation and instructions for the processors 502-506. The system setforth in FIG. 5 is but one possible example of a computer system thatmay employ or be configured in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure.

According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed bycomputer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516.These instructions may be read into main memory 516 from anothermachine-readable medium, such as a storage device. Execution of thesequences of instructions contained in main memory 516 may causeprocessors 502-506 to perform the process steps described herein. Inalternative embodiments, circuitry may be used in place of or incombination with the software instructions. Thus, embodiments of thepresent disclosure may include both hardware and software components.

A machine readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form (e.g., software, processingapplication) readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Such media maytake the form of, but is not limited to, non-volatile media and volatilemedia. Non-volatile media includes optical or magnetic disks. Volatilemedia includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 516. Common forms ofmachine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, magneticstorage medium (e.g., floppy diskette); optical storage medium (e.g.,CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage medium; read only memory (ROM); randomaccess memory (RAM); erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM andEEPROM); flash memory; or other types of medium suitable for storingelectronic instructions.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include various steps, which aredescribed in this specification. The steps may be performed by hardwarecomponents or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, whichmay be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processorprogrammed with the instructions to perform the steps. Alternatively,the steps may be performed by a combination of hardware, software and/orfirmware.

Various modifications and additions can be made to the exemplaryembodiments discussed without departing from the scope of the presentinvention. For example, while the embodiments described above refer toparticular features, the scope of this invention also includesembodiments having different combinations of features and embodimentsthat do not include all of the described features. Accordingly, thescope of the present invention is intended to embrace all suchalternatives, modifications, and variations together with allequivalents thereof.

We claim:
 1. A method for operating a content delivery network, themethod comprising: receiving a network Internet Protocol (IP) addressannouncement at a router from each of a plurality of proxy servers of atelecommunications network, the plurality of proxy servers comprising afirst proxy server and a second proxy server, wherein the plurality ofproxy servers are in communication with a storage device configured tostore a content file of the content delivery network (CDN) and whereinthe network IP address announcement from the first proxy servercomprises a network IP address that comprises a first range of IPaddresses and the network IP address announcement from the second proxyserver also comprises the network IP address comprising the first rangeof IP addresses; receiving a host IP address announcement at the routerfrom the first proxy server, the host IP address comprising a secondrange of IP addresses, wherein the second range of IP addresses issmaller than the first range of IP addresses; receiving a first requestfor the content file from an end user device in communication with theCDN, the first request comprising at least a destination IP address forthe content file; determining, by the router, that the second range ofIP addresses is smaller than the first range of IP addresses bycomparing a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) address for thenetwork IP address to a CIDR address for the host IP address; selectingthe first proxy server of the plurality of proxy servers to provide therequested content file to the end user device based on determining thatthe second range of IP addresses is smaller than the first range of IPaddresses; transmitting the first request for the content file to thefirst proxy server; receiving an indication of a failure of the firstproxy server of the plurality of proxy servers; removing the host IPaddress from a routing table based at least on the received indicationof the failure of the first proxy server; receiving a second request forthe content file, the second request including the destination IPaddress; determining that the network IP address is a most-specific IPaddress remaining in the routing table for the content file; routing thesecond request for the content file to the second proxy server of theplurality of proxy servers; and providing, by the second proxy server,the content file to the end user device.
 2. The method of claim 1further comprising calculating a hash value based on at least thedestination IP address of the first request for the content file.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the network IP address announcement isreceived through a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) session with the firstproxy server.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the host IP addressannouncement is received through a BGP session with the first proxyserver.
 5. A content delivery network comprising: a router incommunication with the content delivery network (CDN) and configured toreceive a first request comprising at least a destination IP address fora content file from an end user device in communication with the CDN;and a plurality of proxy servers comprising a first proxy server and asecond proxy server, wherein the plurality of proxy servers are incommunication with the router and a storage device configured to storethe content file of the CDN; wherein the router is further configuredto: receive an announcement from the first proxy server of a networkInternet Protocol (IP) address comprising a first range of IP addressesand an announcement from the second proxy server of the network IPaddress comprising the first range of IP addresses; receive a host IPaddress announcement from the first proxy server, the host IP addresscomprising a second range of IP addresses, wherein the second range ofIP addresses is smaller than the first range of IP addresses; determinethat the second range of IP addresses is smaller than the first range ofIP addresses by comparing a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)address for the network IP address to a CIDR address for the host IPaddress; select the first proxy server to provide the requested contentfile to the end user device based at least on the network IP address andthe determination that the second range of IP addresses is smaller thanthe first range of IP addresses; transmit the first request for thecontent file to the first proxy server; remove the host IP address froma routing table based on receipt of an indication of a failure of thefirst proxy server of the plurality of proxy servers; receive a secondrequest for the content file, the second request including thedestination IP address; determine that the network IP address is amost-specific IP address remaining in the routing table for the contentfile; and route the second request for the content file to the secondproxy server of the plurality of proxy servers; and provide, by thesecond proxy server, the content file to the end user device.
 6. Thecontent delivery network of claim 5 where the router is furtherconfigured to calculate a hash value based on at least the destinationIP address of the first request for the content file.
 7. The contentdelivery network of claim 5 wherein the network IP address announcementand the host IP address are received at the router through a BorderGateway Protocol (BGP) session with the first proxy server.
 8. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructionsexecutable by a processor to: receive a network Internet Protocol (IP)address announcement at a router from at least two proxy servers of atelecommunications network, the at least two proxy servers incommunication with a storage device configured to store a content fileof a content delivery network (CDN) and wherein the network IP addressfrom both of the at least two proxy servers comprises a first range ofIP addresses; receive a host IP address announcement at the router froma first proxy server of the at least two proxy servers, the host IPaddress comprising a second range of IP addresses smaller than the firstrange of IP addresses; store the network IP address in a routing tablefor each of the at least two proxy servers and storing the host IPaddress in the routing table for the first proxy server; receive a firstrequest for the content file from an end user device in communicationwith the CDN, the first request comprising at least a destination IPaddress for the content file; determine, by the router, that the secondrange of IP addresses is smaller than the first range of IP addresses bycomparing a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) address for thenetwork IP address to a CIDR address for the host IP address; select thefirst proxy server to provide the requested content file to the end userdevice based at least on determining that the second range of IPaddresses is smaller than the first range of IP addresses; receive,after storing the network IP address in the routing table for each ofthe at least two proxy servers and storing the host IP address in therouting table for the first proxy server, an indication of a failure ofthe first proxy server of the at least two proxy servers; remove thehost IP address from the routing table based at least on the receivedindication of the failure of the first proxy server; receive a secondrequest for the content file, the second request including thedestination IP address; determine that the network IP address is amost-specific IP address remaining in the routing table for the contentfile; route the second request for the content file to a second proxyserver of the at least two proxy servers; and provide, by the secondproxy server, the content file to the end user device.
 9. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the networkIP address announcement is received through a Border Gateway Protocol(BGP) session with the at least two proxy servers.
 10. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the host IPaddress announcement is received through a BGP session with the firstproxy server.